Introduction
Tourism is an industry concerned with attracting people to a destination, transporting them, housing, feeling and entertaining them upon arrival and returning them to their homes.
Tourism is commonly referred to as “the activity of visiting places for pleasure”. The basic concept of tourism is based on the movement of people outside their own place of residence i.e. home area. Therefore, tourism can be considered as the movement of people within a city, state, country or across international boundary.
Tourism geography is the study of travel and tourism, as an industry and as a social and cultural activity. Tourism geography covers a wide range of interests including the environmental impact of tourism, the geographies of tourism and leisure economies, answering tourism industry and management concerns and the sociology of tourism and locations of tourism.
Tourism geography is that branch of human geography that deals with the study of travel and its impact on places.
Definitions
From the time of his decision to visit a particular place for purpose of tourism and travel actually undertaken till time, tourist returns home, wide range of activities would have taken place. All these activities undertaken by the millions of tourists around the world in a given period of time may be described as tourism
Tourism is a social, cultural and economic phenomenon which entails the movement of people to countries or places outside their usual environment for personal or business/professional purposes.
WTO (1991)
Tourism is defined as the activities of a person traveling to a place outside his or her usual environment for less than a specified period of time and whose main purpose of travel is other than the exercise of an industry remunerated from within the place visited
Hunziker and Kraft
Tourism is the sum of phenomena and relationship arising from the travel and stay of non-residents in so far as they do not level to permanent residence and are not connected with any earning activity
V.S. Herman – Australian economist
Tourism is the sum total of the operations, mainly of an economic nature, which directly relate to the entry, stay and movement of foreigners inside and outside a certain country, city or region.
International Tourism Society
Tourism is terms of particular activities selected by choice and undertaken outside the home environment. Tourism may or may not involve overnight stays away from home.
Concept of Tourism
Tour – circular trip
Tourist- International Union of Official Tourists Organization (1937) IUOTO – The term tourist is defined as any person traveling for a period of 24 hours or more than in a country other than in which he usually resides.
Excursionist – Excursionist means temporary visitors staying less than 24 hours in the country visited. It includes day-trippers and persons traveling for pleasure and for domestic reasons etc.
Characteristics of Tourists
- Persons traveling for pleasure for domestic reason for health.
- Persons traveling for meeting or in a representative capacity of any kind. (Scientific, administrative, diplomatic, religious, athletics).
- Persons traveling for business purpose.
- Persons arriving in the course at sea Cruise (way) (here stay may be less than 24 hours).
Decision of Travel
There are four types of factors which affect the travel decision.
- Physical Motivation: It covers health, refreshments, sports and Pleasures, desire of travelers.
2. Personal Motivations: It covers visiting friends, relatives, a desire for change and a spiritual experience.
3. Cultural Motivations: It includes curiosity about foreign people, places and desire to participate in international events.
4. Prestige and status motivations: it includes hobbies like flying or sailing, education, conference.
Components of Tourism
location
Location is one of the first important aspects for the development of tourism. The region locates in the sea side or mountainous ranges have a great attraction to the tourists. The natural secrecy of these places always attracts people. Besides this, tourism has been developing much more in cool temperate region than the hottest climatic region. People feel much more comfortable where climate is pleasant and easy transport system is available. In India the Himalayan belts and the sea plans are the main tourist centres for their beautiful location.
Attraction
These classified as natural (landforms, flora, fauna and beaches), cultural (language, music, race, statues, temples), and man-made (historic, modern constructions, temples).
The growth of tourism also depends on the attraction of the places. The regions with full of natural resources and beauty attract people very much. Lakes, rivers, coastal area, hill station etc. are some attractive points to visitors. Many parts of the Himalayan belts and the south Indian regions attract a large number of tourists for their religious values.
Transportation
There is close relationship between transport and tourism growth.
Transport is one of the most important elements for visitors. There are various mode of transportation. There is very close relationship between transport and visitors.
Air transport is fastest and comfortable transportation mode. Air transport is useful for long distance travel.
Road transport is important for both long and short distance. It is also important means of transport in the interior regions. There are four types of roadways national high ways, state highways, district highways and local roads.
Rail transport is an equally important as road transport. It is a cheap, comfortable and easy of travel within and between cities and states. The Indian railways network is the fourth largest in the world. Water is another easy or cheapest way of transportation. The water bodies like river, lake, canal, sea or oceans provide means to system.
Accommodations
It includes commercial sectors (hotels, holiday camps, guesthouses) and private sectors (private residents and homes), camping / caravanning.
Accommodation is one of the basic components of tourist system and includes all such provisions such as meals of food, rest houses, recreation etc. necessary for the visitors or tourists. Hotels, motels, tourist’s rest houses, traveller lodges, circuit houses, youth hostels, dharmashalas, inns, etc. are the various types of accommodation.
In India, most of the states, the state tourism development corporation and in many states ITDC have established their own complexes. There are other establishments which are run by religious institutions, charitable trust and community association
Infrastructure
It includes facilities such as roads, rails, airports, electricity, sewage disposal etc.
Historical and Cultural aspects
The historical and cultural significance plays an important role for developing tourism in a country the forts, historical sculptures; the battle fields’, temples etc. attract tourists of different places of the world. India is an ancient land having a rich historical past and so it has a great attraction from all over the world on the other hand literature, art, paintings etc. have a great cultural value which attract tourists and help to develop tourism.
Other facilities & services
It covers supporting services like shops, banks, restaurants, and medical centers.
Types of Tourists
There are so many different types of tourists around the world and it is important that we understand the different types of tourists in order to be able to ensure that the tourism industry meets their needs.
Explorer: very limited number looking for discovery and involvement with local people. Explorers also seek novelty over the familiar, however these types of tourists do often have a little more interaction with the commodities associated with the tourism industry.
Elite: special individual visits to exotic places.
Off beat: the desire to get away from the crowds.
Unusual: the visit with particular objectives e.g. for physical danger or isolation, study curiosity.
Incipient mass: a study flow travelling alone or in small organised groups using some shared services.
Mass: the general packaged tour.
Charter: mass travel to relaxation to destinations, which incorporated western facilities as possible.
Reference
- Dr. M.B.POTDAR (Professor Shivaji University Kolhapur)